The Colorado Col lege Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Volume 6, Issue 1

May 2013

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Dean Mike Siddoway 2

Amelia’s Sabbatical 2

From our Paraprof 2

Computer Science Update 2

Euclid Scholars 3

Student and Alum News 3

Visiting Professors 4

Books by Faculty 4

C O U N TA B L E B I T S

M O D E L I N G C O N T E S T W I N N E R S

The annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling took place in February, and

5636 teams participated worldwide. Participating students choose one of two

open-ended modeling problems, in teams of up to three. Only non-human

resources are allowed, and the modeling process and the writing must be

completed within four days. Pictured from left to right are Yukiko Iwasaki

‘13, Namgyal Angmo ‘14, and Aradhya Sood ‘14, with team advisor An-

drea Bruder behind. The team chose the problem that challenged them to

“determine an effective, feasible, and cost-efficient water strategy” for 2013

to meet the projected water needs of Saudi Arabia in 2025. They were re-

quired to consider desalinization, movement, and conservation of water, and

to take into account environmental and economic implications of their strat-

egy. Both Yukiko and Namgyal are Mathematical Economics majors, while

Aradhya is a Mathematics and Economics double major. In keeping with

their training in mathematics and economics, the team based their model on

a Cobb-Douglas production function and found an elegant solution to the

problem. Their solution paper, entitled “Water, Water, Everywhere: Meeting the Demands of Saudi Ara-

bia’s Water Needs”, was chosen as one of just eleven papers to be designated Outstanding Winner from

the 5636 submitted. Moreover, they received the Frank R. Giordano Award, which goes to “a paper that

demonstrates true excellence in the execution of the modeling process.” The award is named after Briga-

dier General Frank R. Giordano, who directed the Mathematical Contest in Modeling for many years. The

college last received Outstanding Winner recognition in 1997; since then, contest participation has grown

enormously worldwide and the competition is even more intense. The winning papers will be featured in

an upcoming edition of the UMAP journal. Congratulations to our outstanding winners!

Marlow received the 2013 Burton W. Jones Award for Distinguished College or

University Teaching of Mathematics. This award from the MAA recognizes

professors at the post-secondary level in the Rocky Mountain region for teach-

ing effectiveness, for influence beyond the institution, and for the ability to

foster students’ excitement about mathematics. There are 50 colleges and uni-

versities in the Rocky Mountain Region. Marlow states “I am surprised and

honored by this recognition from our MAA Section. It would not have been

possible without the wonderful colleagues I have in the department here at CC,

and most of all, without the great students I have had the privilege of teaching

over the last 30 years.” He writes “I am soooo happy I'm in the department I'm

in!!” As part of the prize, Marlow received a check for approximately one hundred times “e” dollars:

$271.82. Steven won the award in 2008, so keep up the effort, team! Thanks to Mike for the nomination,

and especially congratulations to you Marlow!

T E AC H I N G A WA R D F O R M A R L OW

U P C O M I N G R E T I R E M E N T F O R S T E V E N As we close the 2012-13 academic year, our colleague Steven Janke is finishing his final year as a full-

time faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. He will continue teaching

half time in the department for the next three academic years, under the college’s phased retirement plan.

Steven received his B.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics (probability) from the University of California-Santa

Barbra and the University of California-Berkeley, respectively. He arrived at Colorado College in 1975

and immediately played an integral role in the rebuilding of Department of Mathematics. He designed

courses in real analysis, probability, and statistics at various levels that remain as offerings today. Steven

also took the lead in developing the curriculum in the computer science curriculum. He has guided the

program from its inception as an emphasis within mathematics to its current status as a successful, rapidly

growing major. We will celebrate Steven’s magnificent career in 2016 when he fully retires.

Student Awards

Each year the department gives

the Florian Cajori Award in

Mathematics and Computer Sci-

ence, honoring a student who has

demonstrated unusual talent and

achievement and also demon-

strated a breadth and depth of

interest in math or computer

science. This year’s honoree is

Cory Scott, who graduated with

distinction in both subjects. We

are pleased to have Cory stay on

with us next year as a

Paraprofessional, before he

heads on to graduate school in

computer science at the Univer-

sity of Calgary.

In addition, the department hon-

ors a graduating student with the

Sophie Germain Award, which

recognizes unusual dedication

and passion for mathematics or

computer science. This year’s

award goes to mathematics grad-

uate Kaila Ryan. Kaila will be a

corps member of Teach for

America next year, before purs-

ing graduate work in education.

Our Computer Science I course was over-enrolled this year and it appears after pre-enrollment that the same

will be true next year. This actually mirrors a nationwide trend indicating more interest in computer sci-

ence; smart phones and the ubiquitous apps no doubt spur the renewed interest. It is all cyclical, but the

increased interest is helping our program grow and this year we hired Don Goodman-Wilson to ease the

enrollment pressure by teaching an additional section of Computer Science I.

In keeping with the growth of our major, we have altered the requirements to include a senior project start-

ing next year. The idea is to have students work on their own year-long software engineering project.

Many students currently do work on projects ranging from music generation to cryptography to game pro-

gramming. We simply decided to make the efforts a little more formal and help students build a portfolio

of larger programming projects.

Professor Whitehead’s focus in computer science is artificial intelligence and during block eight this year he

offered a course in machine intelligence. Fourteen students took the course and spent the second week at

the Baca campus programming a robot to use camera input in order to navigate the environment. The ro-

botic platform the students used was rugged enough to maneuver outside and was acquired through a grant

we applied for last spring to enhance our robotics program. Of course, hardware problems always plague

the efforts, but we hope to work out the problems so students can concentrate more and more on the soft-

ware design.

Page 2

S A B B AT I C A L F O R A M E L I A Amelia spent the 2012-13 school year on sabbatical. She received a Dean’s Summer Research Grant to start

work on a new project with her collaborator at Reed College in August 2012 and a Burroughs Welcome

Fund Collaborative Research Travel Grant to spend Spring 2013 working at the Biomathematics Research

Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. While in NZ, she wrote a paper, “Algebraic properties of symmetric

n-player cause-and-effect processes”, gave four talks and attended two conferences which lead to a trip to

the University of Tasmania and a new collaboration with the group there working on applying representation

theory to phylogenetics (and an invitation to return on one of their 6 week visitor fellowships). She spent

the Fall finishing up two papers, preparing for her time in New Zealand and relaxing. She is looking for-

ward to returning to teaching in the department and has lots of good problems for students to work on.

Math and Computer Science

Faculty (2012-2013)

Marlow Anderson

David Brown

Andrea Bruder

Stefan Erickson

Steven Janke

Beth Malmskog

Jane McDougall

Mike Siddoway

Amelia Taylor

Fred Tinsley

Matthew Whitehead

Departmental Staff

Marita Beckert (Staff Asst.)

Evan Ranken (Paraprof.)

Amy Pacheco (Tech. Dir.)

Volume 6, Issue 1

C O M P U T E R S C I E N C E U P DAT E

O U R L O S S , D E A N ’ S O F F I C E G A I N After being in the department since 1988, Mike Siddoway will move to the Dean’s office this summer to

become Associate Dean of the Faculty. Although not a retirement, it is still a sad moment for the department,

knowing that the deanship is a multi-year engagement. Beyond his activities in teaching and scholarship,

Mike has long taken a broader interest in the community and its enrichment, whether it be protecting the

Piñon Canyon or inviting nature writers such as Trevor Herriot to speak on campus. We know Mike will do a

great job serving the campus community in this new capacity. He has an active research program in his work

with Pham Ngoc Ánh of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Gene Abrams of UCCS. Mike plans to

continue this research work as possible while in his new role as Dean, and even has plans for a book: Divisi-

bility Properties. Note that faculty members in the Dean’s office have been known to return to the classroom

from time to time. Mike says he hopes to teach a block or two, perhaps a few years into his tour of duty. We

look forward to still seeing you around Mike!

A N O T E F RO M O U R P A R A P R O F

Evan (above). The Number Theo-

ry Horseshoes Tradition continues

at the spring picnic (below).

1: I’m only joking!4 2: Also my recent obsession with footnotes 3: As popular as requiring a gcd to find a footnote 4: Or am I?1

My name is Evan Ranken, and I have a confession to make. My passion for mathematics originated from my

interest in a place that many mathematicians find highly objectionable: the real world.1 Some have asked me

why I would even bother studying such a grotesque, inelegant subject. I myself am unsure. Last year, togeth-

er with my adviser from an REU at Louisiana State, I published a paper in the wildly populargcd(72, 159) field of

loop quantum cosmology. Next year I will be attending the University of Rochester in New York to pursue a

PhD in theoretical physics. In particular I hope to study the math behind quantum field theory, as well as

symmetries in particle physics and whatever else catches my eye. If it pleases the department, we can call my

studies “mathematical physics.” But when you think of me, remember the more elegant things I worked on.

Especially the billboards. Do not let Cory touch the billboards.1 But, sincerely, I hope I have left a lasting

mark on the atmosphere of our department through my enthusiasm for the community and my sporadic obses-

sions with graphic design.2 Most of all I am proud to say that I worked alongside one of the kindest, most

welcoming and overall most outstanding departments at CC. We have a wonderful group of mathematicians

and computer scientists here. Which reminds me: I am a deeply sorry to any computer scientists in trapped in

the footnotes.

N E W S F R O M A L U M S

Countable Bits Page 3

E U C L I D S C H O L A R S !

Trevor's Big Idea Award: This year CC held a campus-wide entrepreneurial competition called The Big

Idea where teams of students developed entrepreneurial ideas and then pitched them before a judging pan-

el. The top three teams were awarded a portion of the $50,000 of total prize money. Our own Trevor Bar-

ron, a sophomore computer science major, was on the top team that won $38,000. Trevor's team's idea was

to create a brain monitoring hardware device and smartphone app to help people suffering from epilepsy

track and perhaps someday predict seizures. Trevor and his teammate, Jesse Marble, hope to work on the

project over the coming summer and we wish them great success!

Putnam Team does Well: Congratulations to Ravi Donepudi, Gautam Webb, Shupeng Li, and Austin

Keller, who all scored on the Putnam Exam. The CC team score was 30 and the team rank was 111. Students Going Places: Both Namgyal Angmo and Josh Kim will be heading off to complete their mas-

ters in engineering at Columbia University this fall. Over the summer, Gautam Webb, Hanson Smith,

and Denali Molitor will be attending a Research Experience for Undergraduates. These are prestigious

awards; awardees will have their travel and living expenses covered and receive a stipend to engage in

research with a small group of competitively selected students. In recent years, an REU has frequently led

to a successful capstone project, and sometimes further research! The Budapest Semester in Mathematics

is our study abroad program of choice for math majors where students can study a range of rigorous upper

division mathematics in Europe. Currently Denali Molitor is completing the spring semester, while

Jaclyn Rosenquist attended in the fall, and Willa Hopkins will attend the new summer semester.

Closer to home, Aradhya Sood was awarded one of the “new and improved” Faculty-Student Collabora-

tive Grants, for research to be conducted on campus this summer in mathematical economics.

N E W S F R O M S T U D E N T S

The Euclid tradition continues. Euclid Scholarships are awarded

annually to freshman and sophomores showing outstanding prom-

ise in mathematics and computer science. This year’s winners are:

Emma Holmes, a sophomore from St. Paul, MN, is an up and

coming Math major. Emma states “I have known since I was

about 10 years old that math was the place for me”. She is “very

attracted to the wealth of opportunities that an education in math-

ematics can provide later in life”. Emma is a member of the swim

team. She enjoys reading, hiking, baking and yoga.

Katy Martinez, a sophomore from Colorado Springs, states “I

am now conscious of the place math holds inherently in my life and now I can start harnessing the power

that math possesses in this world … I know that any career I choose will need logical thinking, problem

solving, and applications to math to be a core building block”. Katy is also an avid swimmer.

Alan Yeung, a first year student from Highlands Ranch, CO, is planning to double major in economics

and computer science. He states “As in mathematics, a problem may have multiple solutions. It may be

easy to find one solution, but the difficult part is uncovering the most efficient solution … The beauty of

computer science entices and exhilarates me, while the creation of that beauty challenges me”. Alan en-

joys fly fishing, playing piano, reading and running.

Dillon Montag, a first year student from Castle Pines, CO. He says: “I see mathematics as the language

of this world” and that “ regardless of my career, I know mathematics will always be a tool through which

I will attempt to seek out some of the most mystifying but yet exciting secrets this world has hidden”.

Dillon enjoys reading, writing fiction, the outdoors, and creating short films.

The Euclid Scholarships are

made possible by donations from

generous alumni. If you’d like to

help, you may send a check

(made payable to “Colorado

College” and with “Euclid

Scholarship Fund” on the memo

line) to: Development Office,

The Colorado College, PO Box

1117, Colorado Springs, CO

80901-9897.

Graduating Majors, 2013:

Mathematics: Mina Chung

Zach Cohen

David Cully

Luke Gallione

Demetria Humphries

Austin Keller

Kalli-Ann Kemling

Kaila Ryan

Briana Sallee

Joanna Tebin

Cory Scott

Linnet Vacha

Eli Williams

Esther Zolotova

Computer Science: Jessa Karlberg

Eddie Figueroa

Ethan Genz

Jordan Haber

Kate McManus

Andrew Pope

Ari Sapon-White

Mathematical Economics: Patrick Brody

Annina Fowlkes

Ryan Hedges

Hanna Hoopingarner

Joseph Howe

Yukiko Iwasaki

Shupeng Li

Margaret McDermott

Christin Price

Vyacheslav Sigalov

Hunter Wolfel

Courtney Gibbons New Tenure Track Faculty: Courtney Gibbons ’06 and paraprofessional 2006-07,

completes her Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in August, 2013 and starts a tenure-track facul-

ty position at Hamilton College in New York in the Fall. Courtney works in commutative algebra and has

been recognized as both an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant at UNL, an award given by the uni-

versity to only two graduate teaching assistants each year, and with an Emeritus Faculty Fellowship for top

doctoral students. Congratulations Courtney!

Andrea Buchwald ‘08 will be starting the Ph. D. program in epidemiology at Maryland in the fall. We

also enjoyed a visit from Tra Ho ‘08, who was awarded the Tashjian-Crecelius Family Prize for minority

women in the sciences at CC in ‘07. Tra joined a panel of four former award recipients who discussed their

career paths after CC to an audience that packed the lecture hall, and included the Tashjian-Crecelius fami-

ly donors. Tra is enjoying life in Washington DC, and is living proof of the benefits of an actuarial career.

Rawles Exam

The annual Rawles exam went

off smoothly in Block 6, with six

problems of varying difficulty -

two were particularly diabolical!

Our upper division winner was

Gautam Webb, and our lower

division winner was Paul Akpa-

blie.

V I S I T O R S N E X T Y E A R

The Colorado College

14 E. Cache La Poudre St.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

80903

Editor: Jane McDougall

Phone: 719-389-6275

Fax: 719-389-6841

Email: jmcdougall@coloradocollege.edu

The Colorado College Department of

Mathematics and Computer Science

Visit our website: www.coloradocollege.edu/

Dept/MA

B L O C K V I S I T O R S , T H I S Y E A R A N D N E X T

Beth Malmskog came to us last year from

a visiting faculty position at Wesleyan Uni-

versity. We are so pleased that she is re-

turning! Her research interests are in arith-

metic geometry, number theory, and cryp-

tography. Beth remains an avid hiker and

cross-country skier, and will be starting up

her radio show soon on KRCC! Her fun

math puzzle blog continues at:

http://malmskog.wordpress.com/

Students look out! If you work with any of

our talented visitors, you might just find

yourself deeply involved in a project on

cryptography, vertex algebras, or tropical

graphs!

The department experienced heavy enrollments this year, as well as facing extreme enrollments for next

year (23 in Analysis I, 24 in Algebra I and 25 in Numerical Analysis!). This year’s high enrollments re-

quired a late-in-the-game addition of several extra courses to meet the demand. We were very fortunate for

the additional help from block visitors Don Goodman-Wilson and Ben Katz-Moses. Don taught a busy

introductory computer science class and Ben worked with many students during his five calculus courses.

Both Don and Ben brought great teaching talent to the department and our students benefited immensely.

Our only confirmed block visitor for next year is Robin Wilson who returns from England to teach an FYE

course with Marlow. Robin co-authored a soon-to-appear book with John Watkins (see left, and below).

B O O K P U B L I C A T I O N S

At least two books by departmental authors are out this year (book covers at left): John Watkins (retired

‘10) worked with Robin Wilson of the Open University on a manuscript they were able to complete during

Robin’s visit in 2012. The book will appear this summer. The cover design illustrates two orthogonal latin

squares of order ten (each pairing of ten colors occurs just once) and represents a counterexample to a con-

jecture by Euler of 1782 that orthogonal latin squares exist for all orders except for 6, 10, 14, ... (order 6 is

his famous 'thirty-six officers problem'). Jane McDougall worked with six fellow complex analysts for sev-

eral years on what might be termed “a second course in complex analysis” that also serves as a source book

for enrichment topics and open research problems. The book appeared last fall. Chapters by different authors

are unified via an accompanying set of applets. Jane was pleased to be put in charge of the cover design,

which shows sample output of the applets from most of the topics in the text.

For the first time since 2005

we will have three full time

visitors on board. Michael

Penn comes to us from a

visiting position at Bowdoin

College. He places an em-

phasis on experiential learn-

ing in the classroom and has

developed some innovative

calculus labs. He is eager to

work with students at all levels (including research) and is

looking forward to his classes next year, including Alge-

bra I with 24 students! Michael’s research interests lie in

algebra and the study of vertex algebras.

Rodney James comes to us

most recently from a research

position at UC Denver, where

he opted to teach such cours-

es as abstract algebra, and

number theory. Rodney also

has a background in Ocean-

ography and is a highly profi-

cient computer programmer.

Rodney studies discrete ver-

sions of the Riemann-Roch

theorem, and more recently tropical graphs.

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S , F A C U L T Y A N D S T A F F To nobody’s surprise, Andrea Bruder’s third year review was a big success. Congratulations Andrea!

Amy Pacheco has succeeded in a long term goal, and obtained her Masters Degree in Educational Technol-

ogy from the University of Idaho Boise. Well done on your masters degree Amy! After a stellar year as

Paraprofessional, Evan Ranken will be heading off to the University of Rochester pursuing a PhD in phys-

ics—the continuation of a stellar career, we are sure! Thanks Evan for spending a year of it with us, for

helping so many students, for inspiring us with great problems and talk advertisements, and “encouraging”

our seniors to complete their talk write-ups!